Now and again, we’ll send you a longer piece of writing in addition to your Three Things Weekly on Sundays. I hope you enjoy them :).
This post is particularly long (for us). If you’re viewing this on Gmail and it (un)helpfully clips it for you, click here to view the entire post properly.
Thank you…
First of all, thank you for subscribing to this Substack and being part of the Co-Create community. Thank you for letting this post sit in your inbox, for opening it and for reading it.
I present to you (finally) the second Zine published by Co-Create, titled 'Elemental'. It took me a long while to gather materials and put the zine together, and I know that many of you will have been waiting for your pieces to be published. For that, I'm sorry!
Without further ado, here it is (click on the image or download button):
Oh, and if you missed Zine #01 that we published last year, you can download it here.
If you don’t want to read any further (I get it), then you’re welcome to just stop here, download the Zine and enjoy :).
About ‘Elemental’
The theme for this Zine was 'Elemental', speaking to the four elements: earth, water, wind, and fire.
Each creator responded to this prompt with absolute freedom on what to do with it, and in the Zine you see the results. And now a question for you, dear readers…
For the next Zine, I have to think a little more carefully about getting the contributions organised and the timeframe for publishing them. I want to continue providing the zine as a platform for showcasing the work of this community, in addition to Three Things Weekly - but how I've approached it thus far has been a little unsustainable and ineffective.
If you have any thoughts or experiences to share on how to do this, please... hit that reply button! Or comment on this post.
Our Contributors
Here is a list of all the creative folk who contributed to this Zine. Click on their names to see more of their work!
Saray Ferruz
I met Saray when I went to Birmingham Design Festival, which I talk about in the post below. It’s particularly satisfying to grow this community through in-person 1:1 connections.
Saray is a talented designer and artist. I enjoy their work in that it is creation for the sake of creation - yet there’s a reflection in each of the characters created, a representation of the multi-facets of ‘self’.
Laura Muresan
Like a few of you, I met Laura through the community of Concord Institute. Indeed, Co-Create was born out of my participation in one of the programmes held by Concord and nourished by my ongoing participation with the organisation.
Laura is a photographer, poet, and storyteller all in one. She has a perception that can hone into the essence of a single petal, and in the same expression show you the entire cosmos of which everything is a part.
- aka Brian Reindel
I met Brian here on Substack! Brian was one of the first people to submit his work, and has been waiting a LONG time for it to be published here. You can read his piece in the Zine, and you can also save it in your Substack ‘saves’ below.
- aka Karinisms Illustration
For all my gripes with Instagram and it’s horrific algorithms, I found Karina lurking in our Instagram. Our following is small enough that I could pay attention to someone consistently engaging in our posts, and in seeing her work I invited her to hop on a Zoom call and see if she’d want to be part of this Zine.
She submitted the first piece contributing to this one!
Blandine Bardeau
As well as new mother to baby Billy, she is also birth giver to many exquisite pieces of art, culinary creations and a children’s book to come :). She is Moyba herself (see Zine for reference!)
I particularly enjoyed her latest post, that comes with a little poem for Billy:
Billy Boy
Can you hear my love?
It is nestled in the tender leaves.
Can you see the rivers of milk?
It is where we bathed in a daydream.
Can you feel the whispers of my heart?
They sing their songs older than the wind.
Sam Bloomfield
I have known Sam as a friend, colleague, landlord, and housemate for over a decade (!). I so enjoyed his contributions to this Zine, as it’s so imbued by all my favourite things about him - curious, affectionate, a little off-beat, and deeply human.
I hope you enjoy these pieces as much as I did.
You can also read another of his poems we previously shared in Three Things Weekly here:
Saul Bateman
Saul has been in my life since we were 13 years old, and has graciously (perhaps unwittingly) let me drag him into all of my adventures and misadventures.
I’ve shared his work here on many occasions, and I hope you’ve enjoyed his paintings as deeply as I have.
Midjourney
I also engaged for the first time with Midjourney (AI image generator), and I so enjoyed the whole process. Soon, I will write a reflection on how I experienced these interactions with AI, and where I feel AI sits in the wide spectrum of tools for expressing our creativity as human beings.
I know this whole topic may be controversial, and a lot of people have legitimate fears and concerns about AI and what its development implies for the future of humanity. To that, I have little to say - but I will say what little there is :).
So watch this space!
Last Thing…
Do you know just one person who would feel inspired and motivated by this zine? Share this with them - it's free to download in exchange for nothing. Of course, they can also hit subscribe and get the Three Things Weekly posts for free!
The zine looks beautiful! I'm excited to dig in and read it this weekend!
Amazing job with the 'zine! It was very worth the wait. Thank you for allowing me to contribute a short story. I'm going to mention it in my last Dear Reader for this year and I hope the Three Things Weekly community continues to grow to epic proportions!